Italian entrepreneurs rediscover Eritrea

Italian entrepreneurs rediscover Eritrea-La Repubblica.it 

Eighty Italian entrepreneurs visited the former colony to consider investments after the lifting of sanctions on Asmara by the UN

by SARA BENNEWITZ

13th December 2018

MILAN  – Eritrea is thriving again and after peace, the new agreements with the UN and the lifting of sanctions on Eritrea, the Country returns to be attractive for prospective investors and even for singer-songwriters, so much so that Jovanotti turns to Asmara to shoot his latest video “Chiaro di Luna”.

After the peace with Ethiopia, it beckons Italian investors to rediscover the former Italian colony.

About eighty investors responded, specializing in energy, construction and building materials, mobility, transport, agriculture, food production and distribution, plant engineering, training, textiles, but also tourism. And together with the entrepreneurs, the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Italian Government, Emanuela Del Re, also expressed her willingness to follow closely the initiatives in the area.

“I have found a welcoming, open, Italian-friendly Country  – comments Nunzio Silletti of Gold Energy – My experience in other countries, such as the Ivory Coast and Kenya, lead me to consider the very issues of guarantee and safety, which I have perceived and found in Eritrea, as key elements for an investment on our part.  Our will coincides with the objectives of the Eritrean Government and will lead us to analyse as soon as possible concrete investment opportunities in the renewable energy sector, which represents the basis for a real change in the Country.”  

Andrea Pedretti of the company Energy Vault shares the same view, being interested in investing in solar energy.

Paolo Carli – president and CEO of Henraux S.p.a. a marble company founded in 1821 added: “I believe that cooperation with Eritrea is strategic; the subject of Eritrea’s own extraction basins is surely to be delved into, alongside with the research of new marbles and natural stones to be inserted in a path of valorization of raw materials for architectural purposes.

Gianluca Laliscia, Endurance world champion and sole administrator of  Sistemaeventi.it, stated that: ” During the visit to Eritrea, we decided to start working on the feasibility study aimed at the realization of a very high quality breeding for the pure Arabian endurance horse. The orography of the lands and their quality, combined with a mild climate 12 months per year and therefore suitable for the wellbeing of horses, will surely be the elements of success for our goal, contributing to the recognition and repositioning of Eritrea in the world”.

And when you do business, you also deal with training. In particular, Professor Lucio Ubertini  director of the “Honors Center for Italian Universities”  (H2cu) and Professor Cristiana Bertolucci director of the Scuola Edile di Perugia had a constructive meeting with Professor Haile Muthsun, Director of the University of Asmara,  for the development of possible co-operations aimed at training young people.

I am very satisfied with the prospect that this agreement opens– comments Ubertini of H2cu –  both for the training of the Eritrean cadres and for the preparation of the Italian academic class for the use of new technologies for a shared teaching